or Budding, in Gardening, is commonly practised upon all sorts of stone fruit; as nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, as also upon oranges and jasmines: and indeed this is preferable to any sort of grafting for most sorts of fruit. For the method of performing it, see Gardening Index.
a physical sense, is used for the transplantation of distempers from one subject to another, particularly for the engraftment of the smallpox; which, though of ancient use in the eastern countries, is but a modern practice among us, at least under the direction of art.
It is well observed by the baron Dimsdale, that accident hath furnished the art of medicine with many valuable hints, and some of its greatest improvements have been received from the hands of ignorance and barbarism. This truth is remarkably exemplified in the practice of inoculation of the smallpox: but to the honour of the British physicians, they measured not the value of this practice by the meanness of its origin, but by its real importance and utility; they patronized a barbarous discovery with no less zeal and affection than if it had been their own. Indeed the whole nation might be said to have adopted the practice; for the greatest encouraged it by becoming examples, and the wisest were determined by the general event of the method.
The time and place in which the art of inoculating for the smallpox was first formed, are equally unknown. Accident probably gave rise to it. Pylarini says, that among the Turks it was not attended to except amongst the meaner sort. Dr Russel informs us in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lviii. p. 142, that no mention is made of it by any of the ancient Arabian medical writers that are known in Europe; and the physicians who are natives in and about Arabia assert, that nothing is to be found regarding it in any of those of a more modern date. He farther says, that he engaged some of his learned Turkish friends to make inquiry; but they did not discover any thing on this subject of inoculation either in the writings of physicians, historians, or poets. Until the beginning of the 18th century, all the accounts we have of inoculating the smallpox are merely traditional. The silence on this subject, observed amongst writers in the countries where the practice obtained, Dr Russel supposes, with great probability, to be owing to the physicians there never countenancing or engaging in it. It is also remarkable, that before Pylarini's letter to the Royal Society in 1701, nor yet for several years after, this practice is not noticed by any of the most inquisitive travellers. On this Dr Russel very justly observes, that customs, the most common in distant countries, are often the least apt to attract the observation of travellers, who, engaged in other pursuits, must be indebted to accident for the knowledge of such things as the natives seldom talk of, upon the belief that they are known to all the world.
The first accounts we have in the learned world concerning inoculation, are from two Italian physicians, viz. Pylarini and Timoni, whose letters on the subject may be seen in the Phil. Trans. abridged, vol. v. p. 375, &c. The first is dated A.D. 1701; the next is dated A.D. 1713. Whether our inquiries are extended abroad or confined to our own country, inoculation hath been practised under one mode or other time immemorial; in Great Britain and its adjacent isles we have well authenticated accounts, extending farther backward than any from the continent. Dr Williams of Haverfordwest, who wrote upon inoculation in 1725, proves, that it had been practised in Wales, though in a form somewhat different, time out of mind. Mr Wright, a surgeon surgeon in the same place, says, that buying the smallpox is both a common practice, and of long standing in that neighbourhood. He says, that in Pembrokeshire there are two large villages near the harbour of Milford, more famous for this custom than any other, viz. St Ishmael's and Marloes. The old inhabitants of these villages say, that it hath been a common practice; and that one William Allen of St Ishmael's, who in 1722 was 90 years of age, declared to some persons of good sense and integrity, that this practice was used all his time; that he well remembered his mother telling him, that it was a common practice all her time, and that she got the smallpox that way; so that at least we go back 160 years or more.
In the Highlands of Scotland and some of the adjacent isles, Dr Alexander Monro senior informs us, that the custom through ages past hath been, to put their children to bed with those who laboured under a favourable smallpox, and to tie worsted threads about their children's wrists, after having drawn them through variolous pustules.
According to the result of Dr Russel's inquiries, the Arabians assert, that the inoculation of the smallpox has been the common custom of their ancestors, and that they have no doubt of its being as ancient as the disease itself. It is remarkable, that buying the smallpox is the name universally applied in all countries to the method of procuring the disease: it is true that there are other terms; but in Wales and Arabia, as well as many other countries, this is the usual appellation. From the sameness of the name, and the little diversity observable in the manner of performing the operation, it is probable that the practice of inoculation in these countries was originally derived from the same source. From its extensive spread, it is probably of great antiquity too.
In the year 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, wife of the English ambassador at Constantinople, had her son inoculated there at the age of six years; he had but few pustules, and soon recovered. In April 1721, inoculation was successfully tried on seven condemned criminals in London, by permission of his majesty. In 1722, Lady Mary Wortley Montague had a daughter of six years old inoculated in this island; soon after which, the children of the royal family that had not had the smallpox were inoculated with success; then followed some of the nobility, and the practice soon prevailed. And here we date the commencement of inoculation under the direction of art.
From the example of the royal family in England, the practice was adopted in Germany, particularly in Hanover, and its adjacent countries.
After Mr Maitland had succeeded with these he had inoculated in and about London, he introduced the practice into Scotland in the year 1726.
Sweden soon followed the example of the British. Russia lately engaged one of our principal promoters and improvers of this art. And now there are not many countries that do not more or less practise it.
Different Modes of Inoculation. The practice of inoculation having obtained in every part of the world, it may be grateful, at least to curiosity, to have a general account of the different modes that are and have been adopted in that practice.
Inoculation with the blood of variolous patients hath been tried without effect; the variolous matter only produces the variolous disease.
The application of the variolous matter takes place in a sensible part only; the activity of the virus is such, that the smallest atom, though imperceptible to any of our senses, conveys the disease as well as the largest quantity. Hence the most obvious method is the prick of a needle or the point of a lancet dipped in the matter of a variolous pustule.
Cotton or thread is used, that is previously rubbed with powdered variolous scabs; this thread is drawn with a needle through the cutis, but not left in. This is the method in some parts of the East Indies. The Indians pass the thread on the outside of the hand, between any of the fingers, or between the fore finger and thumb. The Thessalian women inoculate in the forehead and chin.
Some abrade the scarf-skin, and rub in the powdered dry scabs which fall from the pustules of patients with the smallpox.
Many of the Greek women make an oblique puncture with a needle, on the middle of the top of the forehead, on each cheek, the chin, each metacarpus, and each metatarsus; then drop in each a little of the pus just taken warm from a patient, and brought in a servant's bosom. Others in Greece make several little wounds with a needle in one, two, or more places, in the skin, till some drops of blood ensue; then the operator pours a drop of warm pus fresh from a pustule, and mixes it with the blood as it issues out; then the wound is covered by some with a bandage, by others with half a walnut shell placed with its concave side over each orifice.
The Chinese convey a pellet of variolated cotton, with the addition of a little musk, into the nostrils of the patient; they collect dry pustules, and keep them in a porcelain bottle well corked; and when they inoculate, they mix a grain of musk with three or four grains of the dry scales, and roll them in cotton. This method may be called moderation.
About Bengal, in the East Indies, the person who intends to be inoculated, having found a house where there is a good sort of the smallpox, goes to the bed of the sick person, if he is old enough; or if a child, to one of his relations, and speaks to him as follows: "I am come to buy the small pox." The answer is, "Buy if you please." A sum of money is accordingly given, and one, three, or five pustules, for the number must always be odd, and not exceeding five, extracted whole, and full of matter. These are immediately rubbed on the skin of the outside of the hand between the forefinger and the thumb; and this suffices to produce the disease. The same custom obtains in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and other countries.
Very similar to the custom among the people about Bengal, &c. is that in Arabia, where on some fleshly part they make several punctures with a needle imbued in variolous matter, taken from a pustule of a favourable kind. Here they buy the smallpox too, as follows: the child to be inoculated carries a few raisins, dates, sugar-plums, or such like; and showing them to the child from whom the matter is to be taken, asks how many pocks he will give in exchange? The bargain being made, they proceed to the operation; but this buying, though still continued, is not thought necessary. necessary to the success of the operation. The Arabs say that any fleshy part is proper; but generally they insert the matter between the fore-finger and thumb on the outside of the arm.
The Georgians insert the matter on the fore-arm.
The Armenians introduce the matter on the two thighs. In Wales the practice may be termed infestation of the smallpox. There some of the dry pustules are procured by purchase, and are rubbed hard upon the naked arm or leg.
The practice in some places is to prick the skin between some of the fingers by means of two small needles joined to one another; and after having rubbed a little of the matter on the spot, a circle is made by means of several punctures of the bigness of a common pustule, and matter is again rubbed over it. The operation is finished by dressing the wound with lint.—Another custom is to mix a little of the various matter with sugar, and give it to be drank in any agreeable liquor.
Incisions have been made in the arms and legs, and thread, cotton, or lint, previously dipped in the various matter, was lodged in them. The practice of some is to bathe the feet in warm water, and then secure lint dipped in the various matter on the instep, or other part of the foot, where the skin is thin. Others apply a small blistering plaster; and when the scarf skin is elevated and slipped off, the various matter is applied to the surface of the true skin, and confined there by a little lint or plaster. Scratching the skin with a pin or needle, and then rubbing the part with lint, previously dipped in various matter, is the custom in some places.
In the Highlands of Scotland they rub some part of the skin with fresh matter, or dip worsted in various matter, and tie it about the children's wrists. They observe, that if fresh matter is applied a few days successively, the infection is more certain than by one application.
We have thus given the history of inoculation for the smallpox, which not many years ago was justly regarded as one of the greatest discoveries which had been made for the benefit of mankind, and would still be regarded as such had it not given place to one still more valuable and important, the vaccine inoculation or cowpox, which now promises to banish the smallpox from the world. For an account of this, see Vaccination. It would be quite unnecessary to enter into the detail of the advantages to be derived from inoculation for the smallpox, and the methods of performing or preparing for it formerly practised. But, as a curious part of the history of this practice, we shall just barely mention some of the objections which have been urged against it.
It has been said that inoculation for the smallpox is unlawful; that it is bringing a distemper on ourselves, and thus usurping the sacred prerogative of God; that the decrees of God have fixed the commission of every disease, and our precautions cannot prevent what he hath determined; that we should not do evil that good may come; that the patient may die, and then his last moments are distressed, and the future reflections of his friends are grievous; that fear is a dangerous passion in the smallpox, but inoculation increases the causes of fear, by lessening our faith and trust in God; that inoculation does not exempt from future infection; that other diseases are communicated with the matter of the smallpox by inoculating it; that perhaps the disease may never attack in the natural way; that it requires much thought to know what we should do with regard to inoculation; that it endangers others, and that the practice of inoculation comes from the devil.